A SHIFT IN IDENTITY — Why America’s Young Adults Are Quietly Moving Away from Labels 🇺🇸
Across college campuses in the United States, a quiet but undeniable shift is taking place. For the better part of the past decade, discussions about identity — particularly gender identity — dominated classrooms, social media feeds, and campus debates. Yet now, new data reveals something unexpected: the number of students identifying as transgender or nonbinary has dropped sharply.
The latest survey of more than 68,000 college students, analyzed by Professor Eric Kaufmann of the University of Buckingham, found that only 3.6% of respondents identified as something other than male or female. Just a year ago, that figure stood at 5.2%, and in 2022 and 2023 it hovered near 6.8%. In just two years, the number has effectively halved — a decline few saw coming.
The survey, conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), is known primarily for measuring students’ attitudes toward free speech. Yet within its demographic questions lies a valuable insight into how Generation Z is redefining — or perhaps stepping back from — the conversation about identity.
Kaufmann’s analysis, titled “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” highlights that this drop isn’t just numerical — it represents a broader cultural recalibration. For several years, gender and sexuality were often treated as expressions of personal authenticity, with new identities rapidly gaining visibility and social currency. But now, something appears to be changing.
Kaufmann believes one explanation may be improving mental health among young people. “Less anxious and depressed students are linked with a smaller share identifying as trans, queer, or bisexual,” he wrote. In other words, as students grow more secure within themselves, they may feel less need to define or reshape their identity in public terms.
Another factor, he suggests, may simply be that the “trend” has run its course. Like many cultural movements that surge into mainstream awareness, the rapid rise of gender fluidity may now be giving way to stability. “The fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion,” Kaufmann noted. “It happened largely independently of shifts in political belief or social media use.”
Medical experts echo this sentiment with cautious curiosity. Dr. Marc Siegel, a senior medical analyst, called the results “fascinating, but incomplete.” He noted that while the data shows a real decline, it doesn’t tell us why. “It could reflect a changing cultural climate,” he said. “Perhaps there’s less pressure to make political statements through identity, or maybe many have realized that their earlier self-definitions were temporary.”
Jonathan Alpert, a New York psychotherapist, offered another perspective. He believes the shift may represent a “natural correction” after years of what he calls “therapy culture” — an era when every discomfort or doubt was interpreted as evidence of something deeper. “For a while, we encouraged young people to label every emotion,” Alpert explained. “And for some, that label became ‘nonbinary.’ It wasn’t always about gender — it was about searching for belonging.”
Alpert said this trend does not necessarily mean fewer people genuinely identify as transgender. Rather, it shows that fewer young people feel the need to publicly reject traditional labels. “Once people become comfortable in who they are, they stop needing to define themselves so rigidly,” he said. “To me, that’s not intolerance — it’s maturity.”
Indeed, the survey revealed that heterosexual identity has increased by nearly ten percentage points since 2023, while the number of students identifying as gay or lesbian has remained steady. Interestingly, first-year students were less likely to describe themselves as “trans or queer” than seniors — the reverse of what earlier data showed. That pattern, Kaufmann believes, suggests the trend will continue downward in coming years.
The implications of this shift reach far beyond college campuses. For many, it signals a return to balance after years of polarization. Where once social identity was treated as a declaration of ideology, it may now be settling into something more personal, more inward.
Cultural observers have noted that the current generation, while deeply empathetic and open-minded, is also weary of constant self-definition. The demand to categorize every feeling, every attraction, every uncertainty has become exhausting. As one student recently remarked in a follow-up interview, “I don’t need a new label every time I change or grow. I’m just me.”
That sentiment — quiet, grounded, and sincere — may be the truest explanation for this cultural shift. In an age that once prized visibility at all costs, many young Americans are finding peace in simplicity. They are choosing authenticity over performance, substance over slogans.
Professor Kaufmann summarized it best: “Perhaps young people are realizing they don’t have to announce or label everything about themselves to be valid.”
And maybe, after years of loud debate and public declarations, that realization — calm, steady, and deeply human — is exactly what this generation needs.
The numbers may be changing, but what they reveal is not decline — it’s evolution. A quiet turn toward wholeness, toward confidence without confusion, and toward an identity that doesn’t need to shout to be true.